1964 BSCC Season
The 1964 British Saloon Car Championship was the seventh running of Britain's most popular touring car championship. The season was dominated by factory backed teams, with the majority of entries being associated with Ford or BMC. Regulations 1964 saw the BSCC continue to run under FIA Group 2 regulations, as had been used in the previous seasons. Classes The season also saw a restructuring of the Class system, with Class C and Class D modified to balance out the field. Class C was effectively removed, although Class D was split into two to allow the lesser cars to better compete (championship wise) with the seven litre Ford Galaxies. Hence Class C was designated to entries that had engine capacities between 3,000cc and 5,000cc. Points The points system from the previous year was retained, although scores for Classes C and D were based on entries rather than the system. Round by Round This section is for a round by round report for each race of the season. First Round: Daily Mirror Trophy (Snetterton) For the first race of the 1964 season, the field gathered at the Snetterton circuit on the 14th of March, with twenty nine entries prepared to fight for victory in the pouring rain.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Snetterton%20DM.html At the front of the field, Jack Sears led in his Ford Galaxie from Jack Brabham, with the Team Lotus cars behind them. Sears led until lap eight, when contact with the spinning Tommy Weber put him out with tyre damage, leaving Brabham to lead the field home. Class D also saw Gawaine Baillie finished third overall and second in class. Battling with the Galaxies were the Class B Lotus Cortinas, led by Jim Clark who finished second overall. Second in Class B was Bob Olthoff (who had a race long scrap with Baillie) for John Willment Automobiles, with team mate Frank Gardner finishing third. After the leading Lotuses came John Fitzpatrick in his Cooper Car Co. Mini Cooper S, ahead of the only Class C car of John Sparrow. Paddy Hopkirk and Edward Lewis rounded off the podium in Class A's mass Mini brawl. Second Round: St. Mary's Trophy (Goodwood) Round two of the season saw the field gather at Goodwood for the St. Mary's Trophy race of 1964.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Goodwood.html The race was won by Sears and his Galaxie, after his main rival for the race, Brabham, had too much damage to his car (after a collision during practice) to start the race. Baillie also retired from the race early on, after a transmission problem during the warm up. Second overall, and winner in Class B, was Jim Clark who had led the race at the start after an incredible start saw him leap ahead of the Galaxie. Team mate Peter Arundell had followed Clark through, before the pair were overtaken by the Galaxie, finishing second in Class B, ahead of the John Willment pair of Gardner and Olthoff. The Jaguar Mk IIs of Sparrow and Chris McLaren followed the Cortinas across the line, unable to challenge the lighter cars. The Mini's dominance in Class A was brought to a halt after Mike Young took his Ford Anglia to victory, beating Mick Clare's Mini by a nose across the line. Rob Stolemaker completed the Class A podium, himself beating Fitzpatrick by a slim margin as the pair crossed the line. Third Round: National Spring Meeting (Oulton Park) An unexpected resulted emerged from the third meeting of the season, after Clark won the race after drama for the Galaxie of Sears.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Oulton%20Park.html Sears led early on, with fellow Galaxie driver Baillie holding off the challenge of Clark and John Whitmore. However, the former champion's race was cut short after a brake failure, with Sears putting the car into a spin to prevent hitting the barrier at full speed. Clark got passed Baillie soon after and was able to pull away from the larger car, which had to defend from the second Team Lotus car of Whitmore. Ultimately, Clark won the race and Class B, with Baillie second (and winner in Class D) and Whitmore third. After Jackie Stewart (who finished fourth in Class B and fifth overall on his debut) came the Class C cars of McLaren and Sparrow, who were once again off the pace of the leading cars. Young took his second Class A victory on the bounce, this time with a significant gap to Phil Middlehurst's Mini. Fitzpatrick finished highest of the Cooper Car Co. cars, finishing third in Class A. Fourth Round: Aintree International 200 Meeting For the fourth round of the season, thirty three cars met at the annual Aintree International 200 meeting, supporting the day's non-championship Formula One race.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Aintree.html A frantic start resulted, with Sears and Baillie, with their relatively huge Galaxies able to pull away from the herd of Cortina's led by Clark. The leading Galaxies were able to fend off the Clark led challenge, finishing first and second in the race and in Class D, despite Clark's best efforts. Clark achieved his fourth straight win in Class B by finishing behind the two Galaxies, with team mate Arundell a clear second. Gardner managed to hold off Stewart's Red Rose Motors machine to finish thrid, while Chris Craft and Trevor Fowler completed the leading group of Cortinas. Meanwhile in Class A, the works run Mini Coopers were enjoying a renaissance at the front, using new 1,275cc engines, allowing Fitzpatrick and Hopkirk to pull away from the Anglia of Young. Class C was effected by a crash between its only two entrants, McLaren and Sparrow, during the first lap. The collision meant that McLaren retired, although Sparrow was able to continue, despite receiving a mechanical warning flag to remove some of the damage from his car. Fifth Round: International Production Touring Car Race (Silverstone) For round five, the BSCC headed to Silverstone, testing the newly created Grand Prix layout at the Northamptonshire circuit.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Silverstone%20Int.html Class D was added to by the entry of Dan Gurney, using the Alan Brown Racing Galaxie previously used by Jack Brabham at the start of the year. Gurney and Sears' pace proved too much for the rest of the field, streaking away at the start to finish first (Sears) and second (Gurney). The third car of Baillie spent the majority of the race in battle with the Team Lotus Cortinas, finishing fourth overall. Clark kept ahead of the Galaxie to finish third overall and win, once again, in Class B, with team mate Arundell unable to get past Baillie. Bob Olthoff finished third in class after a (literally) door to door battle with team mate Gardner (who spun and tumbled down the field), while Innes Ireland got his first look at the new layout prior to the next visit of Formula One to the circuit. Behind them came Jags of McLaren and Sparrow in Class C, who fended off the challenges of Keith Wilson and Don Smith to maintain the duopoly atop the class. Despite the processional feel to the more powerful classes, the race was anything but in Class A. The Anglia of Young appeared to have rediscovered its pace, battling with Hopkirk, Fitzpatrick and Stolemaker in their Minis. During the final lap, Hopkirk and Fitzpatrick came to the line side-by-side, with Hopkirk fractionally ahead. Stolemaker looked to take advantage if the two came together, but would ultimately finish third behind them, ahead of Young's Anglia. Sixth Round: Small Car Trophy (Crystal Palace) The field headed to the tight confines of the Crystal Palace circuit in London, fighting for the Small Car Trophy for touring cars.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Crystal%20Palace.html Class A raced seperately for the trophy, with Team Broadspeed's John Handley fighting off the Cooper Car Co. cars for victory. His victory was sweetened by the fact that Handley defeated former Broadspeed driver Fitzpatrick on his way, himself beating the Austin Mini of John Rhodes and the Anglia of Mike Young. Race two of the day saw the Cortinas of Class B run directly against Sears and Baillie's Galaxies and the Mk II Jaguar of Roy Carpenter. Sears, despite those who thought the Galaxie would struggle in the tight confines of Crystal Palace, shot away from Clark and Arundell, while Baillie suffered from a poor qualifying position lower down. Sears' race was, however, brought to a halt with a puncture, allowing the Team Lotus cars to take the lead. Gardner completed the podium both overall and in Class B. Seventh Round: The Molyslip Trophy (Brands Hatch) The field competed, for the third year in a row, for the Molyslip Trophy at Brands Hatch, with Clark surprising many by putting his Cortina on pole, ahead of the thundering Galaxie of Sears.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Brands%20Hatch%20Guards.html However, Clark could not escape the raw power of the Galaxie at the start, with Sears leaping away to an eventual victory unchallenged. Clark (who had already established an unbeatable lead in the championship) took victory in Class B once more, beating Olthoff and Roger Swanton. Baillie took second in Class D, with Denny Hulme finishing third, using the Alan Brown Racing Galaxie. Class A saw a controversial race, with the winning car disqualified, along with second place. The Anglia's of Young and Chris Craft went through the race unopposed, with Craft leading Young for the majority of the race. It was only through the use of team orders that Young got passed, with a hope of taking the Class A championship still alive if he won. In post race scrutineering however, with Young and Craft finishing in that order, both cars were disqualified from the race, meaning victory went to Rhodes's Mini. This meant that Fitzpatrick took second and the Class A title. Eighth Round: XIII Gold Cup (Oulton Park) At the final race of the year, Clark looked to replicate his achievement in Formula One by taking maximum points.http://f1.wikia.com/wiki/Jim_Clark Not only did he do this, but he also took victory at the Gold Cup meeting at Oulton Park, after Sears suffered an ignition problem during the race.http://touringcarracing.net/Races/1964%20Oulton%20Park%20GC.html Clark was followed by Olthoff across the line, who had spent a significant amount of time during the race battling with the returning Jack Brabham in his Galaxie. Ultimately, Clark won the championship and Class B, with Gawaine Baillie (who was ultimately the most consistent finisher in his class) take Class D. Rhodes took his second win in a row in Class A, this time beating the Anglias without intervention of the scrutineers. Regardless of the result, however, Fitzpatrick had already won the class, with Young (who finished second in the race) runner up. Class C was won, both on the day and in the championship, by Chris McLaren. Entries A table of entrants may be entered here, using the following table: Final Standings Champions The champions for the season may be entered here. References Images/Videos: *https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1KDBn4fqVUyyTzggc-sttw - Crystal Palace race two. Category:Seasons